NTE: Neverness To Everness Screenshot
Image: Hotta Studio & Perfect World Games

Originally launched back in April, big-budget F2P urban open world NTE: Neverness to Everness made its Steam debut today. Despite also being a mobile title, NTE features GTA-style vehicular shenanigans, action RPG brawler combat, heaps of minigames (including fishing, arcade games, mahjong, and even cafe management), plus all the pretty anime girls and boys you can afford to roll for in the wallet-endangering random-draw character unlock system. Your customizable protagonist can even go on dates with them, hand-holding and all! Scandalous.

NTE is set in a modern urban fantasy setting that feels like a potpourri of familiar tropes; a little SCP, a dash of Shadowrun, etc. Magic has returned to the world, and reality has frayed a bit at the edges. Anomalous artifacts, gaps in reality and monster-spewing portals threaten to cause trouble, and it's up to mystical troubleshooters (such as your team, including folks transformed and empowered by the reality reboot) to keep the universe from imploding.

No pressure, though - it's (mostly) played for laughs, and I cannot deny that it's rather nice to look at, though the character designs can be a little bit busy and their animations overly expressive, as is increasingly the standard for modern gacha games.

Today's Steam debut also coincides with the launch of NTE's second big content update, titled "999 Nights". This episode sends players on a quest into an anomalous tabletop RPG, which of course means travelling around a generic high fantasy world replete with dungeons and/or dragons, plus some fancy-looking castles. Hotta Studio reckon that this is a "lighter, more relaxed chapter" than the previous update, and you can check out the full patch notes here.

Those with their ear to the ground might remember some controversy when NTE first launched. The game caught some flak for undisclosed AI use (as reported on by Gamespot) in both its background art and (most glaringly) an entire mission briefing cutscene. These elements have since been replaced, with the cutscene jarringly replaced with just a crackling screen of static, but it does hint at some corner-cutting on Hotta Studio's part, and caused some high-profile influencers to drop their sponsorship deals with the game.

Neverness To Everness is out now on Steam and free (at least initially) to play. Alternatively, those waiting for an anime-styled upbeat alternative to GTA might want to keep an eye on the ambitious Ananta, which (credit to Automaton) promises to let players unlock characters through regular play, and saves the F2P monetization for home decor, dress-up and other cosmetic items.